Now that the belief that fires are started to create wind farms is dying out, the next conspiracy theory will emerge that wind turbines start fires. A series of failures by the private sector and omissions by the public sector will ignite the movement of “No wind farms in seas and mountains.”
The large wildfire that burned 12,600 hectares in Viotia, northwest of Athens, is a disaster that could have been avoided. It started from the aerial part of a wind power plant installation, which, being in the mountain, was the most difficult to dig and also the riskier in case of a fire. And yet, it was licensed and began operating this year.
One problem is that wind power plants built by private companies are not checked before they are put into operation. It is enough to secure a certificate signed by an engineer. Random inspections are foreseen, but these, too, are few and far between. “You cannot have two or three people for a vast network,” said Kostas Iliakis, president of the Association of PPC Power Station Workers of Hania. “The Vrysi office has three technicians, while its network spans from the Cretan to the Libyan Sea.”
The main problem, however, is that no inspections are carried out and no measures are taken even when there are early signs of impending danger. The big wildfire on Mount Kithaironas was not the first to originate from the wind power plant in question. “A fire had broken out about 150 meters away a month earlier, at 11.14 am on June 27. According to the case file formed at the time, that incident was attributed to a short circuit that was allegedly caused by the contact of two medium voltage conductors on an electricity distribution line. The fire was brought under control relatively quickly, burning approximately six hectares, as Kathimerini reported.
